Government decides to separate 'overlapping' roles of Railway Board

New Delhi: In a move aimed at improving efficiency of the Railways, the government on July 8 announced the decision to separate the "unwieldy" Railway Board's functions of policy formulation and implementation. Rail Minister D V Sadananda Gowda today while presenting the Rail Budget 2014-15 in the Lok Sabha said that this is one of the "structural reforms" being proposed in this sector.

"....At the moment, the Railway Board, due to overlapping roles of policy formulation and implementation, has become unwieldy. Therefore, I propose to separate these two functions," Gowda said in his speech. Sources said that policy formulation could be the major domain for the Railway Board while the implementation part may go to the divisional and the regional levels.

The Rail Minister also said that transparency in administration, execution of projects and procurement will be given top priority. Strategic procurement policies will be adopted to make the procurement process transparent and most efficient, he said. "E-procurement will be made compulsory for procurements worth Rs 25 lakhs and above," Gowda said. He said that for the convenience of state governments and other stakeholders, the status of ongoing projects will be made available online.